Haywood County was home to a thriving Cherokee culture when Europeans arrived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but smallpox devastated their numbers in 1715 and the Cherokee were eventually forced westward. In the decades following the Revolutionary War, the area attracted a large number of white settlers, many of Scotch-Irish, German, and Dutch descent. Despite its isolated location, the casualties and ruin brought on by the Civil War, and the loss of land for the formation of other counties, Haywood County continued to draw settlers. The creation of the Western North Carolina Railroad in the 1880s provided a boon to its limited agrarian economy and elevated new industries such as logging and tourism to prominence.

Modernization in Haywood County was slow but steady during the twentieth century, and sluggish population growth was compensated for by the influx of tourists and the expansion of facilities to accommodate them, such as North Carolina's first ski resort at Cataloochee Ranch. The county also hosts several festivals related to mountain heritage and culture, including the annual Singing in the Valley, the Stompin' Ground Clogging Competition, and the Smoky Mountain Folk Festival. The Folkmoot USA festival, a popular multicultural celebration of music and dance, is held in Haywood County each summer. County agricultural products include apples, tomatoes, chickens, and beef and dairy cattle. In 2004 the estimated population of Haywood County was 56,500.

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